“Nothing, nothing!” Jin Ge’er and Shen Ge’er said in unison. “Nothing is wrong with us!” Their tone was a little hurried.

Master Pang studied the two of them for a puzzled moment. Seeing that they were indeed holding the stance just as he had taught them, orderly and proper, he gave a satisfied nod.

At the third quarter of the mao hour, Jin Ge’er left Xiumu Courtyard and turned aside to find Butler Bai.

“Butler Bai, Butler Bai, what do you fear most?”

His eyes shone bright and clear, and he looked utterly adorable. Butler Bai smiled slightly: “Does Sixth Young Master need something?”

“No, no!” Jin Ge’er smiled and waved his hand. “I am most scared of moths. That is why I wanted to ask what Butler Bai is most afraid of!”

It was child’s prattle, pure and simple, and Butler Bai laughed at the innocence of it.

He had been in the middle of discussing matters with the account room and receiving office head stewards — each year in the seventh month, the head stewards from all of the Xu household’s enterprises returned to the main residence to settle accounts. Butler Bai had not only to supervise the account office stewards in clearing the half-year accounts in a timely fashion, but also to work with the receiving office stewards to arrange the lodgings, meals, and travel of all those returning head stewards.

Even so, Butler Bai gave it a moment’s thought and replied: “When I was small, what I feared most was spiders. I was afraid of getting tangled in their webs, like a moth that couldn’t get free!”

Jin Ge’er was delighted. He thanked Butler Bai with a beaming smile and ran back toward the inner courtyard.

Butler Bai smiled, watching the boy’s cheerful figure vanish around the corner of the covered walkway, before turning and going back inside.

Jin Ge’er had barely passed through the inner gate when Shen Ge’er shot out from behind a nearby pomegranate tree.

“Did you find out?” His expression was a little eager. “What is Butler Bai afraid of?”

“Spiders!” Jin Ge’er declared with self-satisfied triumph.

Shen Ge’er breathed a sigh of relief: “Good. There are plenty of spiders in the back garden.”

Jin Ge’er gave him quiet instructions: “I have to copy characters this afternoon, so you take Huang Xiaomao and the others and go catch spiders.”

“Leave it to me!” Shen Ge’er straightened up with pride. “I will bring my cloisonné enamel box and fill it to the brim. I refuse to believe he won’t be frightened!”

The next day, Master Pang walked his usual round among the children holding their horse stances.

Whether Huang Xiaomao, the oldest, or the Seventh Young Master, the youngest, all bore earnest expressions and held steady, solid forms — every one of them doing it by the book.

He nodded inwardly with quiet approval.

He accepted the tea cup offered by a young manservant and, in a pleasant mood, was just about to sit down.

The manservant beside him let out a sudden cry.

Master Pang, swift as a flash of lightning, spun around.

On the black lacquered high-backed chair, a dozen or so spiders the size of a thumbnail were crawling about.

How could there suddenly be so many spiders.

Master Pang frowned, swept them off with a brush of his sleeve, and settled himself into the seat with a steady, unhurried ease. He picked up the tea lid and gently skimmed the floating tea leaves, then took a delicate sip.

The color was a vivid green, the fragrance rich and full, the taste mellow and smooth.

Worthy indeed of being the finest tribute West Lake Longjing tea.

Come to think of it, although the Marquis appeared imposing and stern, he was in character quite generous, and treated him with great respect. Otherwise, what right would a man without the least scholarly distinction have — a person who simply taught the young masters a few martial moves in the household for a meal — to receive a share of the tea the palace had sent down as imperial gifts?

Once he had taught the Sixth Young Master well and seen him through to completion, it would also count as repaying the great kindness of Master Shao and the Marquis.

Thinking of this, Master Pang’s eyes narrowed slightly.

But in the eyes of those watching, it had the look of a man savoring his tea in great contentment.

The sidelong glances of Jin Ge’er and Shen Ge’er met. Jin Ge’er gave Shen Ge’er a small nod.

That night, Master Pang had a few drinks with a household guard newly acquainted — a man skilled in internal martial arts — and returned to Xiumu Courtyard slightly drunk.

The moon shone bright overhead. A cool breeze drifted through the air. He fell into bed at once.

Something soft and fleshy squirmed against his leg.

He gave a violent start and sat bolt upright. Several mice came crawling out from inside his quilt.

“What is this?” Master Pang called out loudly for his manservant.

The manservant came in carrying a wooden bucket filled to the brim with water. Seeing mice dart toward him, he screamed and dropped the bucket, water splashing across the entire floor.

The two of them spent the better part of the night chasing mice. Fortunately, beyond those few that had scurried away, they found no nest.

It was a newly built room and still on the wild side. There were also sweets inside. The mice must have smelled something and crept in to steal a bite.

Master Pang breathed a sigh of relief, washed up hastily, and went to bed. He was up before dawn the next day, splashed cold water on his face, and was back to his usual vitality.

When he returned to his room, he found it full of cockroaches.

It was the sixth month, when all manner of insects were out and about.

Master Pang had his manservant go to Butler Bai for some sulphur and scattered it around the front and back of the room.

“What do we do now?” The two brothers sat side by side on a green stone step, chins propped in their hands. Shen Ge’er looked at Jin Ge’er with longing eyes. “Master Pang is not afraid of anything at all!”

Jin Ge’er had not anticipated this either. He pulled a long face: “Let me think!”

Shen Ge’er did not dare make a sound, and listlessly stared at the camphor tree beside them.

Eleven’s gentle, melodious voice drifted to them: “Why are you two not resting properly in your rooms for the midday nap? What are you doing out here?”

“Mother!” Jin Ge’er’s heart gave a start. He threw himself into Eleven’s arms with exaggerated enthusiasm, as if covering something up. “It is hot in the room, and we cannot sleep!”

Shen Ge’er jolted as if burned, and immediately rushed over to cling to Eleven’s arm: “Fourth Aunt, it is terribly hot today!”

Eleven smiled and hugged the two boys, then told Hupo behind her: “Have the servants bring another block of ice to Jin Ge’er’s room!” Then she took both boys by the hand and led them inside. “Hurry off to your naps — otherwise you will have no energy for copying your characters this afternoon!”

Both boys nodded obediently, rapidly bobbing their heads.

Deng Hua came hurrying over. Without pausing to observe that Eleven was still seeing someone out, she called out loudly: “Madam, the Marquis of Weibu has suddenly passed away. The Marquis has sent this servant to inform you. He asks you to change your clothes quickly and go over to pay your respects. The Marquis has already gone ahead.”

Eleven was greatly startled: “When did this happen? How did it come about?”

The two families lived next door to each other. For the Marquis of Weibu to have died, there would have to be some sign of it — a mourning canopy being set up, white drapes going up. How could it happen without a whisper, followed so abruptly by news of his death? Not to mention that at the Dragon Boat Festival, the Marquis of Weibu had invited Xu Lingyi over for drinks, and Xu Lingyi had come back exclaiming that the old were truly cleverer than the young…

“The receiving office did not receive any death notification,” Deng Hua said with sharp clarity and ready tongue. “The news was sent by a young manservant from the Marquis of Weibu’s eldest son. By the sound of it, the Marquis of Weibu and his son were sharing the midday meal together when the Marquis of Weibu suddenly collapsed onto the table. By the time the Imperial Physician arrived, he had already passed.”

Meaning — he had just this moment died.

By rights, when someone in a household died, one ought to choose an auspicious day to send out the death notifications. However, theirs and the Lin family were next-door neighbors as well as relatives by marriage, so the Lin family informing them early was understandable.

Eleven turned the matter over in her mind, then instructed Hongwen and A Jin to look after Jin Ge’er and Shen Ge’er. She went inside and changed into an outer robe of pale grey cloud-pattern silk, removed her pearl hairpins, informed the Grand Madam, and set off for the Weibu Marquis’s estate with Hupo.

The Lin family had only just begun setting up the mourning canopy and hanging white drapes.

Lin First Young Mistress’s personal matron was waiting for her at the inner gate. The moment her carriage drew to a stop, the matron came forward eagerly to help Eleven down, then said in a low voice: “Our Young Mistress invites Madam to step aside to the small reception hall for a moment!”

Eleven noticed that the matron had not yet changed into mourning clothes, and felt a quiet pang of alarm. When she reached the small reception hall, a maidservant had just set out tea and refreshments, and Lin First Young Mistress swept in like a gust of wind.

“You are here at last. Good — you can help steady things.” Her complexion was terrible, and she had not changed her clothes either. She grabbed Eleven and pulled her toward Lin Madam’s quarters. “Father passed while he and the eldest son were sharing the midday meal, and yet those younger brothers of my husband’s insist that Father was frightened to death by the eldest son.” As she spoke, her eyes reddened. “They are making a scene out in the front hall right now!”

Eleven was deeply shocked: “How could such a thing have happened?”

Lin First Young Mistress said bitterly: “If they can pull the eldest son down from his position, so much the better — and if they cannot, they can at least splatter us with filth!”

This was an internal matter of the Lin household, but Xu Lingyi had dispatched a manservant to bring word for her to come, so he had certainly already formed some plan.

Eleven steadied herself and entered the inner chamber of Lin Madam’s quarters alongside Lin First Young Mistress.

It was the beginning of the hai hour by the time Eleven and Xu Lingyi returned from the Weibu Marquis’s estate.

“Now I finally understand what it means to twist black into white, to argue without reason, to talk absolute nonsense, and to behave with complete overbearing unreasonableness!” Eleven had been a lawyer in her past life, yet thinking of the scene with Lin First Young Mistress and her sisters-in-law just now, she could not help but marvel.

Xu Lingyi knew it all too well.

“We are connected to Lin First Young Mistress through our First Son-in-law.” He smiled ruefully. “Not to mention that Lin First Young Mistress and her husband are in the right. We could not do anything less than stand by them.”

It was better for Zhen Jie’er and the Xu household that way.

Eleven then asked: “Are we going again tomorrow?”

“We will see how things stand,” said Xu Lingyi. “We have already made our position clear.” He added, “The Lin family still has the Grand Madam. Lin Grand Madam would never allow the family to fall into disorder and become a laughingstock.”

Eleven nodded, and went to look in on Jin Ge’er.

Jin Ge’er had long since fallen asleep. Though A Jin sat fanning him nearby, he was still soaked in sweat all over his head.

Eleven wiped the sweat from Jin Ge’er’s forehead, pressed a kiss to her son’s small face, and then returned to her own room.

“Jin Ge’er is asleep?” Xu Lingyi had come out from the washroom and changed into a middle robe of Songjiang three-shuttle cloth. “How are his studies coming along these days?”

“It has only been three or four months.” Eleven smiled. “The Marquis is being rather impatient!”

Xu Lingyi laughed as well, and picked up his fan. “Go to sleep. It is hot — let me fan you a little!”

“The Marquis has been on his feet all day,” Eleven said with a smile, reaching to take the fan from his hand. “Allow me to fan the Marquis!”

Xu Lingyi held her back: “Why do you have to make such a fuss!”

The cool breeze carrying the chill of the ice blocks blew over Eleven’s body, all the way through to her heart. Eleven turned onto her side, clasped Xu Lingyi’s hand, closed her eyes, and lay there wondering whether she should ask Master Zhao tomorrow about Jin Ge’er’s studies — and fell asleep very shortly thereafter.

But plans rarely kept pace with what actually unfolded.

Over the following days, both Eleven and Xu Lingyi were caught up in the affairs of the Lin household. Three days later, the Lin family sent out the official death notifications. But Lin Madam had not managed to rein in her sons — they were each doing as they pleased, the household in disarray: the maidservant assigned to pour tea was being called off to sweep floors, the one who struck the cloud chime was being called off to receive guests… Those there to pay their condolences could see that something was wrong. Some offered incense before the spirit and made straight for the door; others, those more closely acquainted with the Xu family, rounded the corner and came to the Xu residence to rest. Xu Lingyi took Xu Sizhun and received guests in the outer court; Eleven managed the female visitors in the inner courtyard, listening to them talk about the Lin family’s gossip. In between all this, Shao family members arrived in the capital to attend the funeral and paid their respects to Xu Lingyi, while Hui Jie’er brought Zhen Jie’er along to call on the Grand Madam and Eleven, carrying shoes and socks they had made for them. Not until the seventh day after the Marquis of Weibu’s passing had come and gone did the couple finally have a moment to breathe.

Lin First Young Mistress came in person, bringing gifts to offer her thanks: “It was fortunate to have the Marquis and you come to our aid. We ought to express our gratitude properly. Only, since our family is now in mourning, we cannot do so properly at present — it must wait until after the mourning period.”

“We are all family — you needn’t be so formal with me, Elder Sister.” They spoke for a while, then went together to pay their respects to the Grand Madam. Lin First Young Mistress could not linger, and Eleven saw her out to the inner gate.

Chang An came running over breathlessly, and without pausing even as Eleven was still seeing her guest off, he called out: “Madam, please come quickly! Master Pang is about to cane Sixth Young Master and Seventh Young Master on the hands!”

—